Gabe waits for his dog mama, she won’t be gone long because she misses her dog boy.We eat some of the tomatoes fresh! I set a few aside when we are processing for soup or stewed for canning. I try to get the best ones – no marks or splits or spots. This sammich started out wanting to be a BELT but I didn’t have the lettuce so it just gets billing as a breakfast sammich. Brunch, actually, we don’t get up early enough…I used up some odds and ends of pasta for this one. I still have plenty of parsley, the caterpillars that were eating it have gone away. Still have a hornworm or two – they seem to be specializing on my hot peppers now that the patio tomatoes are gone. We love these upside down cakes. I cut them into single serving squares and freeze them in plastic containers. They really hit the spot for late night snacks while watching videos.More cookies! These are my current favorites. I’ve been leaving out the almonds and adding raisins. I’ve made these often enough that I can do them without looking at the recipe.Mmm… French toast and garlic pepper sausages. The sausages are from that processing plant we travel to a few time a year to stock up. They have the best ham hocks, and they are the closest place I know that has fresh pork bellies. I buy a couple, cut them in two, and vacuum seal the halves for the big freezer.Mrs J said we have plenty of tomato soup canned. I think she mentioned 40 quarts. Well, we better get busy with it! I used a veggie peeler to shave Parmesan for a garnish.Mmm… smoked pork makes a fine sammich. The sides are potato salad in the back and bacon, tomato, and basil pasta salad.I’ll wind this one up with a few cute kittehs.

Like I said, the killer app for steaks is sous vide. These spent the afternoon at 136°F. A quick sear then a rest while a pan sauce was made from the bag liquids, butter, wine, and soy sauce. That was a big rib steak, even I didn’t eat the whole thing.A veggie beef soup follows leftover steak at our house. A smoked pork sammich turned the soup into a real meal.Kitteh! The kittens were recipients of a round of claw clipping, they were a bit disturbed and needed a firm grasp to hold them for the task.I told Mrs J to mention that too firm a grasp causes their little kitteh eyes to bug out.

Teeny weenies! Hash browns and eggs! Mmm… breakfast for dinner.Mrs J spends most of her volunteer time in the kitteh house but she does catch the occasional pupper. This little girl came in when her owner passed. She’s heartworm positive but is expected to be fine.Fried fish for the win! I made a tartar sauce with fresh dill, lemon juice, lemon zest, minced dill pickles, and mayo.I’ll finish with an adult cat. No info at all on this one but Mrs J days she’s very friendly. She’s been at the shelter for a week or so.

Worm sign! Mrs J drew my attention to this Swallowtail caterpillar on one of the parsleys, it appeared suddenly and was gone the next day. Moar kittehs! Mrs J brought back several good pics of the current kitteh crop at the shelter from her last volunteer stint.We decided it was time for another smoked pork shoulder. This one spent the day with peach chips smoldering under it, then it finished in the oven.I made a batch of buns for it, I think I’ll do some tacos later.A couple of times a year I’ll trundle the mower down to the back pond to knock the weeds and grass down. The pond is murky from recent rains, it will clear up over the summer. We have it stocked with bass, redear and bluegill.We both favor these BLTs and are satisfied to make them for either lunch or dinner.Moar kittehs! As TaMara once quipped, “it looks like the kitty printer is running low on toner”!

The Blog Roll

About TaMara

What's to say? I love to cook and I think families benefit from sitting down together for dinner every night. I ran What's 4 Dinner Solutions menus service for many year. Soon those menus, recipes and shopping lists will be a series of cookbooks. Guaranteed to make it easier for families to have a quick, delicious and nutritious dinner each night.